§ MR. W. F. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the authorities for the Niger Coast Protectorate and other West African possessions of the Crown have issued notifications of an additional taxation to be placed upon spirits; and whether in the case of all these colonies the import duties upon spirits were already higher in the British territories than in the adjacent territories under the French and German flag; and if so, whether he can state what will be the amount of such increase, and the duty on spirits in future to be levied in the British colonies as compared with similar duties levied in the French and German territories.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN; The recently signed Convention provides for a minimum duty of about 3s. per proof gallon throughout the Liquor Zone, with an exception in the case of Dahomey and Togoland, where the duty will be about 2s. 6d. per proof gallon. The duties ill Lagos and the Niger Coast Protectorate were recently raised, in anticipation of an increase of the general minimum, to 3s. per proof gallon. The duties in Sierra Leone and the greater part of the Gold Coast were already 3s. and 4s. 6d. per proof gallon respectively. In the case of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, and Lagos, the duties were already higher than in the adjacent territories under the French flag. There is a Customs Union between the Gold Coast District east of the Volta and the adjacent German possession of Togoland, so that in this case the duties are the same. In the case of the b Nio'er Coast Protectorate the duty was less than in the adjoining German possession of the Cameroons. The duties in all the possessions within the Liquor Zone, whether French, German, or English, cannot, of course, fall below the minima fixed by the Convention, but the Convention empowers any of the Govern- 1182 merits interested to raise their duties above those minima, if they so desire; and it is therefore impossible at present to answer the latter part of the hon. Member's question.